Didactic contract and secondary-tertiary transition: a focus on resources and their use

International audienceIn this article we claim that the concept of didactic contract can help to develop a deeper understanding of the secondary-tertiary transition, in particular by showing changes at three different levels: at the general, institutional level; at the level of the discipline concerning mathematical practices; and at the level of a given mathematical content. In fact, we argue that the didactic contract is linked to the use of and interaction with different resources, by teachers and students, in the sense that their use is shaped by the contract; and at the same time the available resources shape the mathematics taught. We draw here on two studies, one in the UK and one in France, to illustrate how a focus on resources can inform us about contract rules at the different levels